Perfect 10 shows steep learning curve, sues Microsoft over thumbnails

Adult site Perfect 10 is suing Microsoft over its image search feature, which …

Perfect 10, which describes itself as a "publisher of tasteful model and supermodel images," is once again suing a search engine. This time, the target is Microsoft, which Perfect 10 is accusing of copyright infringement. At issue is MSN/Windows Live's image search, which returns thumbnails of Perfect 10 models that in many cases link to sites hosting Perfect 10's images without permission.

If you're reading this with a sense of déjà vu, it's because Perfect 10 tried the same tactic with Google. Back in 2004, the porn site sued Google, accusing it of copyright infringement with its image search engine. Perfect 10 argued that since it sold its thumbnails to cell phone users (who apparently need a quick porn fix on the go), Google Image Search's thumbnails undermined that market. They were also bothered by the fact that some of the sites hosting Perfect 10's content were Google AdSense customers, which meant that Google was earning revenue from them.

A US District Court sided with Perfect 10 on the infringement question while saying that Google was not liable for framing third-party sites with infringing content. The finding of copyright infringement was recently overturned by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, however. Writing for the majority, Judge Sandra Ikuta said that Google's use of thumbnails fell well within the boundaries of fair use and that the "minor commercial aspects" of Google Image Search were not significant.

Despite the adverse ruling in the Google case, Perfect 10 has decided to take its fight to Microsoft. "Microsoft is showing tens of thousands of extremely valuable celebrity images, along with Perfect 10 images, without authorization, which it obtains from hundreds if not thousands of pirate web sites," according to Perfect 10 president Norm Zada, who is "shocked" by Microsoft's position. "You would think that as a major copyright holder itself, Microsoft would be extremely sympathetic to concerns of other copyright holders, and would go out of its way to not copy copyrighted works without permission, or link to or promote massive thieves [sic] of other people's property," he continued.

Zada's alarmist language to the contrary, the new complaint from Perfect 10 appears to be a rehash of the Google complaint. His company has also filed suit against Amazon and a number of other companies. Despite Zada's 2005 protestation that his company "doesn't have the resources to sue everybody," a search of the federal court system reveals no less than 28 lawsuits filed by Perfect 10 over the past several years. It may be that selling pictures of naked ladies on the Internet is a tough way to make a living, given how quickly they propagate across the web. It looks like Perfect 10's response to this phenomenon is to try and litigate its way to profitability.